Meet the Mushroom Fly Team

Clare H. Scott Chialvo, Ph.D.

Evolutionary Biologist/Ecologist
Postdoctoral Research Associate

clare.scott <at> ua.edu
Current CV

Current Undergraduate Students

Jordan Beveridge

Undergraduate Student
Jordan joined the mushroom fly group in Fall 2018. She is working together with Bailey and Lauren to assess the physiological mechanism(s) of toxin tolerance in the 8 species of mushroom-feeding Drosophila from the immigrans-tripunctata radiation found in Eastern North America. They are generating tissue samples for metabolomic, transcriptomic, and qRT-PCR analyses to characterize the tolerance mechanism(s).

Olivia Fish

Undergraduate Student
Olivia joined the mushroom fly group in fall 2017. She generated tissue samples for a transcriptome based phylogeny of the immigrans-tripunctata radiation. She and Sarah-Ashley are assessing cyclopeptide tolerance in 17 species in the ​radiation that have not previously been tested for this adaptation. In the upcoming semester, Olivia will also be sequencing the genome of two Drosophila ​species that occur in the radiation using a combination of short and long read sequencing technologies.

Sarah-Ashley Giambrone

Undergraduate Student
Sarah-Ashely joined the mushroom fly group in spring 2018. She worked with Logan to assess whether the gut microbiome contributes to toxin tolerance in a local D. tripunctata population. She and Olivia generated the tissue samples for the transcriptome phylogeny. They are assessing cyclopeptide tolerance in 17 species in the immigrans-tripunctata. Sarah-Ashley will lead an examination of the gut microbiome's contribution to toxin tolerance in 8 Eastern North American species of mushroom-feeding Drosophila​.

Lauren Haynes

Randall Research Scholar (Undergraduate Student)
Lauren joined the mushroom fly group in Fall 2018. She is working together with Bailey and Jordan to assess the physiological mechanism(s) of toxin tolerance in the 8 species of mushroom-feeding Drosophila from the immigrans-tripunctata radiation found in Eastern North America. They are generating tissue samples for metabolomic, transcriptomic, and qRT-PCR analyses of the tolerance mechanisms. Lauren will also be examining tolerance of Drosophila species to diets containing a natural mix of toxins extracted from Amanita phalloides (Death Cap Mushroom).

Bailey Lose

Emerging Scholar (Undergraduate Student)
Bailey joined the mushroom fly group in Fall 2018. She is working together with Lauren and Jordan to assess the physiological mechanism(s) of toxin tolerance in the 8 species of mushroom-feeding Drosophila from the immigrans-tripunctata radiation found in Eastern North America. They are generating tissue samples for metabolomic, transcriptomic, and qRT-PCR analyses to characterize the tolerance mechanism(s).

Former Students

Olivia Sorrell

Currently enrolled in University of Alabama - Birmingham Dental School
B.S. Fall 2016
Olivia's research project focused on quantifying genetic variation of toxin tolerance in a local population of Drosophila tripunctata and characterizing the impact of inhibiting two detoxification gene families (Cytochrome P450s and Glutathione S-Transferases) on toxin tolerance in the same population.

Logan Griffin

University Scholar (Master's Student)
Logan joined the mushroom fly team as an undergraduate and entered the University Scholar program in May 2017. His undergraduate research project with the mushroom fly team was focused examining the contribution of the gut microbiome  to mushroom toxin tolerance in a local population of Drosophila tripunctata.